Day 5 - Psalm 13

Man...have you ever felt like no one was listening...like God turned the channel and you just couldn't get an answer?  Two thousand years later and we still struggle with where we want God to be, when we want him to be there, and how he should answer.

In the 13th Psalm, David is in a spot where he's calling out to God, but God is silent.  Many times in our lives we feel like God's not returning our email, listening to our voice messages, or even reading our texts.  He's not answering...but why do we struggle with that?  Why is it bad that God doesn't cater to the whims of his children?  He knows what's best for us, even when we firmly believe that we know...maybe even think we know better (due caution here, kids).

God provides instruction and circumstance to "be still and know."  He's done it throughout scripture, and thankfully, is still in the practice today.  God knows that sometimes we need to struggle in order to know again the desire to return to the Father...to know the unconditional love and grace the Father gives to his children.  We have to feel the cold to appreciate the warmth...get caught in the rain to appreciate being dry...and experience loss to truly know life.

And beyond ourselves, God provides opportunity for growth to not only allow us to see our own faith galvanized, but to be built up such that we can turn around and help someone else up who's struggling with the same thing we've been through, only by the grace of God.

Back to David.  What he shows us not only the feeling of separation, but the reality of his faith.  He cries out to God and feels alone.  But David acknowledges the truth.  He tells us that despite what he feels, he knows God is there and that he can trust God's mercy and unfailing love...and rejoice in his salvation.  David ends with the most important part, and so will we.

Even when you feel alone, know that God is with you, that he cares for you because you are his child.  Take comfort that the One who created all things, knows the hairs on your head and was willing to watch his only Son die on a cross...for you.

- submitted by Norm and Melissa Wilson